260 BIRDS IN LONDON 



dogs, went out to the attack. Arrived at the 

 den, at the roots of a giant beech-tree, they 

 set to work to dig the animals out. It was a 

 huge task, but there were many to help, and 

 in the end the badgers were found, old and 

 young together, and killed. 



Let us imagine that when this business 

 was proceeding with tremendous excitement 

 and noise of shouting men and barking dogs, 

 some person buried at that spot in old Palaeo- 

 lithic times had been raised up to view the 

 spectacle ; that it had been explained to him 

 that these hunters were his own remote de- 

 scendants ; that one of them was a mighty 

 nobleman, a kind of chief or king, whose 

 possessions extended on every side as far as 

 the eye could see ; that the others were his 

 followers who served and obeyed him ; and that 

 they were all engaged in hunting and killing the 

 last badger, the most terrible wild beast left in 

 the land ! I think that the old hunter, who, 

 with his rude stone-headed spear had fought 

 with and overcome even mightier beasts than 

 the grizzly bear, would have emitted a strange 

 and perhaps terrifying sound, a burst of primitive 

 laughter very shrill and prolonged, resembling 



